Scrub Buzz - Inside OutThe Scrub Buzz Blog written by Nickie Muir, includes a weekly newspaper column "Inside Out" and occassional random musings about the complexities of cross-culture relationships or life with a eight year old. The writings poke a stick at current news and happenings in New Zealand, with an opinion which is sometimes cheeky, funny or irreverent, but usually with a poignant thought for contemplation.The word Scrubb Buzz can be explained by its two definitions...Scrubber: A domestic animal gone feral and is running round the ‘scrub’, the backwoods the wild, ‘uncleared’ land. An untitled woman of common birth.

Scrubbuzzer: Common cicada – often found in the scrub making an inordinate noise for its size. Symbol in South America and many parts of Asia for change and re-birth valued for its ability to spend a winter underground, transform itself and come up singing when the sun comes out.

Scrubbuzz Blog was a venture between two New Zealand scrubbers made good. One from Paraparaumu and the other from Paremoremo who ended up in a varsity flat together in Allenby Terrace, when Wellington was a dismal outpost of the Soviet Union and glitter was severely rationed. There was still a Bolshevik Club in Aro Valley in those days and second hand army coats were the height of fashion. In contrast they became underground dealers in glitter, painted a giant mural of a naked woman late one night and spent a ridiculous amount of time making paper mache art works, canoeing around water fountains and, in Nickie’s case – writing poetry. Nickie majored in pointlessness and inappropriate boyfriends while Michelle entered the corporate world and had a swivelly chair and a special area marked ‘Quality Thinking’, where Nickie used to visit and jump across the line saying things like ‘Quality Thought’. ‘Crap Thought’. ‘Quality Thought’. Until Michelle got rid of her by taking her to lunch. Through death, divorce, birth and Brazillians (the people, not the hairdo) letters and the odd box of collections of leaves and photos they’ve chartered the course of a friendship and not a few projects, countries, ideas and lifestyles that, quite frankly could best be described as bonkers. We figure we’ve done it … so you don’t have to.

founders & editor

Michelle is the IT brain, publishing and ocassional art/graphics girl when creatively inspired... and Nickie still writes stuff.

Nickie is a teacher, writer and regular columnist for a New Zealand newspaper.

Nickie graduated from Victoria University in Wellington. She has lived in Thailand, Taiwan and Argentina and now lives in a small town (Whangarei) in the Northern bit of New Zealand where you are in easy range of about 100 different beaches all with different flavours. She lives with her bloke (former Argentine yo-yo champion and espresso impresario, Rodolfo) and their daughter Maya, a close relative of the Ukrainian fruit bat, who spends the best part of the day hanging upside down on things. All financial and familial decisions are left to the Huntaway (a large good- tempered farm dog) named Fierro, because he’s the sensible one. They continue to live in Whangarei because it’s the only place in the world you can live in the CBD and share your night-garden with moreporks (a small native owl.)
At 17 she ran the length of Thailand (which was an extreme way to get out of Thai dance class- even for her but had the benefit of raising money to build a school with her Thai host father Wirote.) At 30 something she decided to buy a few horses and ride from Cordoba in Argentina to Bolivia with her Aussie mate Anna. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Nickie Muir has published in North and South magazine and in the Buenos Aires Herald (The Last Tango on the Number 60) and has two collections of poetry, one self published in Buenos Aires; Songs for Buried Lovers (A bush survival kit for grief) and another; ‘A Lot of World, A little Street’ one poem of which came second in the Classics/Montana poetry competition in 2006.

The columns re-printed here have been published weekly, as the as “Inside Out”column the Northern Advocate, which is part of the APN News & Media group which includes New Zealand's leading metropolitan newspaper, The New Zealand Herald.

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Nickie is available for freelance writing , for more information, please contact her via email and say hello!